NFL Teams, Still Worth Billions, See Slight Decline

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NFL Teams, Still Worth Billions, See Slight Decline

If the National Football League and its 32 franchises were a publicly traded entity, now would be the time to sell.

The average value of an NFL team has dipped 2 percent to $1.02 billion, according to Forbes. It's the first time that data point has declined since the magazine started tracking NFL team valuations in 1998.

Fans in Pittsburgh, Nashville and Kansas City were the biggest losers, in that they dropped out of the Billion-Dollar-Franchise club. The over/under split on the billion is 16 teams, exactly half the league.

The Dallas Cowboys, whose spanking-new stadium will host the Super Bowl in February, remain the league's most valuable franchise with a $1.805 billion price tag. In second place are the Washington Redskins ($1.6 billion), followed by the New England Patriots ($1.4 billion), New York Giants ($1.2 billion) and Houston Texans ($1.2 billion).

Bringing up the rear are the Jacksonville Jaguars, who clock in at only (!) $725 million. That drop can be attributed to a 16 percent devaluation, the steepest of any team in the league.

Overall, the NFL remains healthy with some $8 billion in annual revenue – nearly 6 percent more than last season – but it goes to show that it takes some tough economic times to put even a small dent in America's most popular spectator sport.